1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel gas manufacturing apparatus having a modifier for modifying a hydrogen-containing fuel which contains hydrocarbon, alcohol, or the like to produce a modified gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been employed in the art a hydrogen manufacturing apparatus (fuel gas manufacturing apparatus) for modifying a hydrocarbon fuel such as natural gas or the like or a hydrogen-containing fuel containing alcohol such as methanol or the like to produce a hydrogen-containing gas (modified gas) and supplying the hydrogen-containing gas as a fuel gas to a fuel cell or the like.
Such a hydrogen manufacturing apparatus basically operates to modify a hydrocarbon fuel such as an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), a city gas, or the like with water vapor to produce a hydrogen-containing gas as a high-concentration hydrogen-rich gas, and separate high-purity hydrogen from the hydrogen-containing gas with a PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) device according to pressure adsorption.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-201478 discloses a method of manufacturing hydrogen by mixing desulfurized kerosene and water vapor to vaporize the kerosene, and modifying the mixture of the vaporized kerosene and water vapor. According to the disclosed method, as shown in FIG. 8 of the accompanying drawings, kerosene stored in a kerosene tank 1 is delivered by a kerosene pump 2 to a desulfurizer 3. The kerosene is desulfurized by the desulfurizer 3 and then delivered as an ejector 4 which serves as a vaporizer. Water stored in a water tank 5 is delivered by a water pump 6 to a water vapor generator 7, which converts the water into water vapor that is delivered to the ejector 4.
The ejector 4 mixes the desulfurized kerosene with the water vapor to vaporize the kerosene, and delivers the mixture to a modifier 8. The modifier 8 modifies the mixture to extract hydrogen therefrom. The hydrogen is then delivered from the modifier 8 as fuel cell hydrogen to a fuel cell system (not shown).
In the conventional system shown in FIG. 8, the dedicated kerosene pump 2 is connected to the kerosene tank 1, and the dedicated water pump 6 is connected to the water tank 5. Therefore, the overall system is large in size and is not economical.